Eliot Cutler on Welfare & Poverty

We need welfare reform but not demonization of recipients

LePage lumped Social Security and Medicare into the definition of welfare: "It doesn't matter what liberals call these payments, it is welfare, pure and simple," LePage said. "Liberals believe that redistribution of wealth--taking money from hard-working
taxpayers and giving it to a growing number of welfare recipients--is personal income. It's not. It's just more welfare expansion."

Eliot Cutler was critical: "I can't believe he meant to do that because it's extraordinarily insulting to the thousands
of Maine people who worked all their lives and are now retired & trying to make ends meet by relying on Social Security and Medicare, programs to which they--and for that matter, Gov. LePage--are entitled," Cutler said. "I understand that we have welfare
challenges in Maine and we need reform. I just don't talk about it in the way he does. I want to talk about how we can fix the problem. He is simply demonizing people and now expanding the definition of welfare beyond any definition I've ever observed."

Never abandon citizens who are unemployed, ill, or hungry

Maine continues to experience a growing gap between public needs and our ability to meet them.
Maine should never abandon its citizens who are unemployed or underemployed, face illness or disease without the means to obtain good health care or who go to bed hungry every night.
Every business understands and every family on a budget knows, that when resources don't align with expenses, something has got to give.
The choices we make and the policies we pursue can dramatically increase opportunity for all Mainers if we stop playing politics and confront these serious challenges head on.